Constructing Human Rights in the Age of Globalization

Both human rights and globalization are powerful ideas and processes, capable of transforming the world in profound ways. Notwithstanding their universal claims, however, the processes are constructed, and they draw their power from the specific cultural and political contexts in which they are constructed. Far from bringing about a harmonious cosmopolitan order, they have stimulated conflict and opposition. In the context of globalization, as the idea of human rights has become universal, its meaning has become one more terrain of struggle among groups with their own interests and goals. Part I of this volume looks at political and cultural struggles to control the human rights regime -- that is, the power to construct the universal claims that will prevail in a territory -- with respect to property, the state, the environment, and women. Part II examines the dynamics and counterdynamics of transnational networks in their interactions with local actors in Iran, China, and Hong Kong. Part III looks at the prospects for fruitful human rights dialogiue between competing universalisms that by definition are intolerant of conradiction and averse to compromise.

Table of Contents:
Part I The Struggle to Control the Human Rights Regime; Chapter 1 Who Owns Our Culture?, Caren Irr; Chapter 2 The Consequences of a Constructed Universal, Neil A. Englehart; Chapter 3 Reflections on the Intersections of Environment, Development, and Human Rights in the Context of Globalization, Kavita Philip; Chapter 4 Translating a Liberal Feminism, Ellen M. Freeberg; Part II The Dynamics and Counterdynamics of Globalization; Chapter 5 The Politics of Culture and Human Rights in Iran, Mahmood Monshipouri; Chapter 6 Outside Actors and the Pursuit of Civil Society in China, Rebecca R. Moore; Chapter 7 Globalization and Human Rights for Workers in China, Dorothy J. Solinger; Chapter 8 Localizing Human Rights in an Era of Globalization, Linda Butenhoff; Part III Setting the Terms of Debate; Chapter 9 The Challenges to International Human Rights, Joanne Bauer; Chapter 10 Obstacles on the Road to an Overlapping Consensus on Human Rights, Charles Lockhart; Chapter 11 Globalizing Cultural Values, Chenyang Li; Chapter 12 Suffering as Common Ground, John K. Downey; conclusion Conclusion, Andrew J. Nathan, Mahmood Monshipouri, Neil A. Englehart, Kavita Philip;

About the Author :
Mahmood Monshipouri, Neil Englehart, Andrew J. Nathan, Kavita Philip